Culture

Finland Investigating Its SS Volunteers for WWII War Crimes

During the country's Nazi alliance, a Finnish battalion reportedly collaborated with the SS.

June 1, 2018 2:16 pm

Aircraft bound for Arkhangelsk to attack the Allied are refuelled in an Axis airbase. Finland, July 1942 (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

Mondadori via Getty Images

Finland is investigating whether a volunteer battalion of native Finns committed war crimes during World War II while the country was working with the Nazis, according to the Associated Press. After Finland formed an alliance with Nazi Germany in 1941 to stave off an invasion by the Soviet Union, a volunteer Finish battalion reportedly served within the infamously barbaric Waffen-SS until 1943.

Finland’s National Archives will be conducting the investigation, which is schedule to be complete by November. The investigation comes after Jerusalem’s Simon Wiesenthal Center made the request to Finland in January.